The Late Bustanil Arifin

IPMI Founding Father

In 1984, Minister Prof. Dr. Ali Wardhana formally opened IPMI and the history of IPMI as an educational institution began. We are proud to have pioneered what was then an innovative approach to management education in Indonesia, an MBA school aimed to provide the Indonesian business community with managers trained by a rigorous program emphasized on active and creative learning and a business practitioner-orientation program with the English language as our medium of instruction.

The logic was simple. An increasingly competitive market, both domestically and internationally, and Indonesian economy became more inextricably linked to the world economy. It required managers with active and creative skills to cope with fast changing conditions. And IPMI was meant to provide those managers as our enduring contribution to the development of our country. We knew that our beginning coincided with the embarkation by the Indonesian government to deregulate the economy. The logic was also simple. Indonesia needed economic development and growth. This required exports to pay for our imports and our debts. With uncertain oil prices, we could only rely on non-oil exports from both agriculture and manufacturing.

It required an efficient and productive economy to enable firms to compete in international markets. Since protection and excessive controls had created the high-cost Indonesian economy, they had to be removed in a wide-spread deregulation drive. These reforms had to benefit a large proportion of the population with continued emphasis on the development of rural areas which also meant that new distortions should not arise from these set of reforms. It is worthwhile to note here that in our very first graduation commencement exercise, our institute was honored to host the commencement address of Prof. Dr. Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, in which the message of the current deregulation drive was first issued.

To implement these reforms, both the government and companies must have the managers who can deal with the new changes. Bureaucratic logic must give ways to a freer, more creative managerial logic in both private and public sectors. The playing field is slowly becoming more level and the number of players is increasing. It is a field in which the education provided by IPMI can be applied to its most productive use. It also places a greater burden on our students and alumni as a new generation facing the challenge of dealing with a freer and more open competition. We hope that the education they have received from us has prepared them to face the challenge, and at the same time, to become responsible members of a future society they will help to build and one they can be proud of.